Washington quarters becoming more scarce?

I've always heard to hang onto 1982 & 83 coins due to the absence of mint sets in those years. I find a lot of them. Enough that its hard to believe they are rare.

 

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Seems to me like its a fairly weak strike on the obverse compared to the reverse.

 

Nice! I'm a big fan of Roosevelt, definitely looking forward to finding my first. And the 82 and 83s aren't rare per se, they're only worth holding onto in mint state. I assume MS examples hold value to collectors who try to put together mint sets, and as you said with no mint sets being released those years those are two of the tougher dates to acquire in mint condition

 

They're only rare in mint state condition. Well worn examples abound. Nobody wants those..........

 

I was going through all the Washington Quarters I had in my silver stash and noticed a couple things. Not having really studied these before, I wondered if these were patterns just in my coins, or more widely known trends...

Firstly, in just under 200 coins, I didn't have a single 1955. Looking online, they didnt' seem to be more expensive, so I wasn't sure if they were more rare or not.

Secondly it seemed like the strike on the 1964s (of which I had the most, by far) was pretty weak on most of them. Is this common?

 

There were millions of collectors in the '50's and everyone removed any 1955 quarters they saw that had managed to get into circulation depite the best efforts of the roll hoarders.

The quality really began deteriorating about 1962 as the coin shortage got worse and it bottomed out in 1968. Even then it stayed bad until the relief was lowered and demand decreased in the '90's. When the public started demanding nicer coins it improved a lot in 2000.

 

David Ganz (past Ana president) wrote in his book on the state quarters program that "Mint statistics and marketing studies suggest persuasively that more than 140 million Americans--more than 60 percent of the US population--are actively collecting the 50-states quarters..." This was written in 2000 and re-issued in 2008. Not sure where youre getting your numbers but I think this range that he discusses is fairly accurate, at least in the beginning of the program.

 

The only person with estimates this high is the guy selling them on HSN, and he is only trying to hype their desirability.

10 Million is more the accurate number.

and I would disagree with David Ganz's figure as well. Marketing studies are not a good place to find accurate information on these coins, IMHO. The mintage figures can't give you any info on how many collectors.

 

I think marketing and mint studies are more credible than what any one of us might believe. When you give a low number like 10 million, you probably have in mind serious collectors, maybe those who even have slabs etc. The 140 million number I agree is too high, but it's undoubtedly based on a loose definition of collecting the quarters. My mom and mother-in-law both collected them for years, and only state quarters. The latter had coffee cans of each state. She was actively collecting them but was not a collector in the sense that we are.

 

The 10 million was an estimate of new collectors who entered the hobby. Of the 140 million (one of every two people in the US if you exclude babies & toddlers under 5?), how many were existing collectors and how many were new collectors?

Chris

 

I was just 9 y/o back in 1999 when the state quarters began to be released but I remember everyone collecting them, it seemed just about every kid in school had some type of folder or map with holes for every state. So, initially I imagine the number of state quarter collectors was very vast. After the novelty wore off , I believe that number went way down though

 

and how many people do you think were saving multiple coins for each state? Now take the total minted and divide by 140 Million. How many per person does that allow? Does it allow for even a single "coffee can" collector? We know that people hoarded these coins by the roll as well. I did it myself, but even if there was a roll of each state per collector, do the math and it leaves no chance of 40 million collectors.

 

They are just face value coins. People to try to collect state quarters and the new fake "gold" presidential dollars, they're all worth face whether you have all of the years lined up or not. Mint sets however are different. If you've been buying sets for years that could be something to get into.

 

if Mint Sets are different, as in something to get into, then please explain the reason that the 1983-P Washington Quarter in MS-66 (not available in a Mint Set) sells for more than nearly any other clad coin from that series?

Worth face value??? I think some clads are not only worth more than face, but worth collecting in general.

Collect what makes you happy, valuable or not. If you're looking for something that will rise in value, the fact is that nobody knows what will rise for sure.

The only thing that is generally true is that generalizations are generally wrong.

 

If the pieces are becoming more scarce, the market certainly doesn't show it.

Edited: I see you meant in change. Think of it this way: The average life span of a coin is about 25 years of heavy circulation. Some of the state quarters are now 17 years old.

 

There is a perception that old clads are common.

People don't collect what is common.

People don't know that the old clad can be tough especially in well made and pristine condition so they don't collect it. With no demand and ample supply the old clad appears to be common.